JPH0374193B2 - - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To prevent the menadering of a ribbon having an especially large width by holding the printing balance of a whole, by additionally printing appropriate auxiliary printings along the longitudinal direction to both end edge parts of printing paper in the width direction thereof. CONSTITUTION:The titled printing apparatus is constituted so as to apply auxiliary printings to both end edge parts of printing paper 1 along the longitudinal direction. The printing data of the auxiliary printings 7 to both end edge parts of a label or base paper are inputted to RAM or printing order is preliminarily inputted to ROM. Because the auxiliary printings 7 are applied to both end edge parts of the printing paper 1 in all printing operations, the shrinkage of a ribbon 2 is uniformized in left and right directions and the light degree adhesive effect of the printing paper 1 and the ribbon 2 at both end edge parts is also expected and the meandering of the ribbon 2 by the change in left and right printing patterns is prevented to make it possible to prevent the generation of wrinkles or the lowering in printing quality.

Description

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION (Field of Application of the Invention) The present invention relates to a thermal transfer printing device that performs printing using a thermal transfer ribbon heated by a thermal head, and particularly to a thermal transfer printing device that can prevent meandering of the ribbon.

(Prior Art) In this type of printing device, a ribbon is heated by heat generated by a selected heating element of a thermal head, and this heating melts the printing material of the ribbon and prints a desired pattern on the printing paper. be. Therefore, in the printed area, the ribbon and printing paper are slightly integrated by the melted printing material, and the transferred area of the ribbon is shrunk by heating by the thermal head.

When such a printing device prints only on one side S1 in the width direction of the printing paper 1 (Fig. 1,
In region B), the ribbon 2 meanders. The first cause of this meandering is that the ribbon 2 and the printing paper 1 are integrated on one side S1 and separated on the other side S2. This is due to S2 slipping slightly. The second cause is that only one side S1 of the ribbon 2 shrinks due to thermal transfer.

(Object of the Invention) The present invention has been made in view of the above-mentioned circumstances, and the present invention is made by additionally printing appropriate auxiliary printing along the length direction on both ends of the printing paper in the width direction. It is an object of the present invention to provide a thermal transfer printing device that can prevent meandering of particularly wide ribbons by maintaining balance.

(Example) Next, an example of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 to 5.

FIG. 2 shows a printing paper 1 printed by the printing apparatus according to the present invention, and an example of the printing paper 1 is a label band in which labels 4 are temporarily attached in a continuous manner on a mount 3. ing. The mark 5 displayed on each label 4 is a detected part detected by a sensor 19, which will be described later, and is printed in advance when the printing paper 1 is manufactured.

On the front portion of the label 4 in the transport direction indicated by area A, a bar code indicating the contents of the shipper, etc. is printed over the entire width in the width direction by the printing device according to the present invention. Further, an extreme case will be described in which the shipper is printed on one side S1 in the width direction at the rear in the transport direction indicated by area B, and there is no content to be printed on the other side S2.

Auxiliary prints 7 of any meaningless shape, for example a rectangle, are printed at predetermined intervals along the left and right edges of the label 4 along its length.

The label shown in FIG. 3 is a casted label, and the auxiliary printing 7 is printed on the surface of the mount 3. In this case, since the auxiliary printing 7 is performed only on the mount 3 of the label, there are few problems in label design.

Next, the structure of a printing device for printing the above content will be explained with reference to FIG.

The ribbon 2 wound into a roll is held by a supply shaft 10, and the fed-out ribbon 2 is held by a guide roller 1.
1. The film passes through the sensor 12 and the guide roller 13 and is wound onto the winding shaft 14. The ribbon 2 is held between a platen 15 and a thermal head 16 along with the printing paper 1 along the traveling path, and printing is performed according to a predetermined printing signal. The printing paper 1 is fed out from the supply shaft 17, passes through a sensor 18, a platen 15, a guide roller 19, and is wound onto a take-up shaft 20.

The printing paper 1 and ribbon 2 are transported using a pulse motor 21 as a driving source and a timing belt 22.
Platen 15 with round belts 23 and 24, respectively;
The winding shafts 20 and 14 are driven. In addition, the winding shaft 14,
20 is provided with a slip mechanism so that the excess rotation of the printing paper 1 and ribbon 2 causes them to slip.

The circuit shown in FIG. 5 is for controlling the entire printing apparatus, and the CPU 30 is connected to each circuit by a bus line 31. The ROM 32 has a program storage section 32a and a character generator 32b, and the RAM 33 is used as a buffer memory. The input section 34 includes a keyboard 35. This keyboard 35
is for inputting data equivalent to printing information and the number of labels to be produced, and the input contents are stored in RAM.
33 predetermined locations.

Note that the print data for the auxiliary printing 7 on both edges of the label or mount is input to the RAM 33, or
Alternatively, it is assumed that a print command has been input into the ROM 32 in advance.

Further, the print control circuit 36 controls printing by the thermal head 16 according to the print information stored in the RAM 33, and the motor drive circuit 37 appropriately drives the pulse motor 22 based on the output signals from the sensors 12 and 18. It is something.

Thus, in all printing operations the auxiliary printing 7
is printed on both edges of the printing paper 1, the shrinkage of the ribbon 2 in the left and right direction is made uniform, and a slight adhesion effect between the printing paper 1 and the ribbon 2 at both edges is also expected. It is possible to prevent the ribbon 2 from meandering due to horizontal changes in the pattern, thereby preventing wrinkles or deterioration in print quality. Furthermore, since the auxiliary printing is performed on both edges of the printing paper, meandering of the ribbon can be more effectively prevented.

Although the case where the printed content is a bar code, shipper, etc. has been described, any data or printed content may be used, such as content that is different or has the same pattern on the left and right sides of the printed paper.

(Effects of the Invention) As described above, according to the present invention, it is possible to print in a well-balanced manner at the left and right edges in the width direction, and it is possible to prevent slips, meandering, and wrinkles of the ribbon.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

Fig. 1 is a perspective view showing an example of printed paper printed by a conventional device, Fig. 2 is a perspective view showing an example of printed paper printed by the device according to the present invention, and Fig. 3 is another example of the same printed paper. 4 is a side view showing the structure of the device according to the present invention, and FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a circuit for driving the device shown in FIG. 4. Explanation of symbols 1...Printing paper, 2...Thermal transfer ribbon,
3... Mounting paper, 4, 6... Label, 7... Auxiliary printing, 1
4, 20... Winding shaft, 15... Platen, 16... Thermal head, 21... Pulse motor, 22... Timing belt, 23, 24... Round belt.

Claims (1)

[Claims] 1. A fixed thermal head having a plurality of heat generating elements, a thermal transfer ribbon that is heated by the selective heat generation of the heat generating elements of this thermal head and prints on printing paper, and a transport that transports the ribbon and printing paper as appropriate. What is claimed is: 1. A thermal transfer printing device comprising a mechanism, the thermal transfer printing device being configured to perform auxiliary printing along the length direction of both edges of the printing paper.